Dead Fish Washing Ashore in TNT

Thousands of dead fish are washing ashore along a four-mile arc of coastline between the southwestern peninsula port villages of Erin and Chatham.

The fish killed are growing with every wave that touches the beach.

As of last night, however, no one could say what was killing the fish - mostly sardines. It began happening last Thursday.

Contacted yesterday, the Institute of Marine Affairs (IMA) said it had no official report on the dead fish incident. The Environmental Management Association's (EMA) Corporate Communications Manager Nyantara Gayah-Hassan said the authority had also not received any complaints.

"We need specific and relevant information to the exact location and then we will be able to investigate," she said.

Fishermen said they wanted answers.

Fisherman John Alexander said: "We started noticing this since last week Thursday and now the whole beach packed with fish. Is just like sardines when you pack it in a tin."

Alexander said the fish were washing ashore "half dead", and appeared to have red bumps on their bodies. He said people in the village suspect that waste water from an animal farm was being channelled into rivers leading to the sea.

"The information that we got is that the farm is pumping something into the rivers, because they have some dams on the farm and when the tide is low they run lines and pump out the waste water," he alleged.

However, an official at the farm told the Express, "This has nothing to do with us. We were told they (experts) are doing tests and we are awaiting the outcome."

Fishermen said a similar fish kill happened two years back, when diesel leaked from a sinking cargo vessel off the coast of Venezuela.

Sardines are not commercially fished in Trinidad and Tobago waters, but the fish is used as bait and fishermen follow the schools to find the big fish.

Alexander said, "The bigger fish usually feed on the sardines. But because so many of them have died the big fish won't come in as close as they usually do. So we are going to have to go much further out to sea to make our catch."